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Wednesday, August 3, 2011

Blizzard Trademarks "Mists of Pandara"

Blizzard Trademarked the name "Mists of Pandara" recently according to multiple WoW news sites. With Blizzcon just a few months a way a lot of people are assuming that this is the next expansion. Since Blizzard registered "Cataclysm" as a trademark about this time two years ago that seems like a reasonable assumption. However, I want to go on the record and claim one thing.

I'm Calling Troll.

I acknowledge that I could very well be wrong, but "Mists of Pandara" doesn't smell right as a WoW expansion. First of all lets remember the history of the Pandaran. The race started as a personal art project of Blizzard's lead artist, that was eventually turned into an April Fools joke. The Pandaran were so popular that Blizzard has included them in minor ways into various games and the lore, but none of it was all that major. Since Blizzard knows people are looking at the trademarks to get a clue of what the next expansion will be, it wouldn't surprise me if they threw this one out there to yank our chain a little bit.

Second, let me list the expansions and lets see if we see a pattern.

The Burning Crusade - Established in Lore and a clear enemy in demons.Wrath of the Lich King - Established in Lore and a clear enemy in undead.Cataclysm - The name doesn't invoke any established Lore, but a Cataclysm is clearly something bad.

Now lets look at this new trademark.

Mists of Pandera - Pandas?

Lets face it, there isn't a lot of lore about the Pandaren, and most of what we do have comes from the RPG books which Blizzard has confirmed is not canon. Not only that who would we be fighting, and how are the Pandaren related to that. Also, the Pandaren Islands are supposed to be small far away islands, and I have to wonder if they would really be big enough to support an expansion.

I wouldn't be surprised if this turned out to be a small Facebook or pop cap game that Blizzard created for the fun of it, but I would be absolutely shocked if this is an expansion.

15 comments:

They played a major role in Warcraft 3, and were around way before the joke there is a reason there was a panda pet in classic collectors. Stop spreading this false info. It is a real expac, tm's cost money, dates match up and a domain was bought about a week before with the same name.

First, the Pandaran didn't have a major role in Warcraft 3. They were in one OPTIONAL quest and a small part of the orc BONUS campain. Optional and Bonus were Blizzards words in describing that content, not mine, and that hardly sounds like a major roll to me.

Second, the Joke was first. Blizzard didn't start doing April Fools jokes during WoW. Samwise Didier told us how the Pandaran were created by him in the first BlizzCast, and he clearly says Joke came before they were included.

Then there is the Chinese market to consider. Depictions of injury/death to Pandas are strictly prohibited by the Chinese government and Blizzard would not spend time and effort re-doing the art work to appease the Chinese censors. That and its bordering on retarded, if this in anyway true I will cancel my account and wait for Guild Wars 2.

Last time I checked, worldwide trademark registrations were closer to the $3,000 mark. That's still not a fortune for Blizz, but it's not the kind of cash any publically traded company throws around for a joke.

I think blizzard confirmed that one issue with Pandaran were legal issues with China, but from what I understand the rumor that it's due to a law banning violence against panda's is false. Apperently there are already games in china that show violence against pandas. That said, I still don't think this is an expansion.

@Hugh Hancock

Yes, a publiclly traded company will throw that kind of money around for a joke. Check out this link:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3IyGbRHN3kQ

Yes, that is an ad but it's also a joke. Jokes are used for marketing purposes all the time, and thinkk about all of the buzz that this trademark filing has generated. I wouldn't be surprised if this cost blizzard quite a bit more then 3,000 dollars, but I still think it's been worth every penny, and it's still a troll.

The pattern you are looking for is not necessarily 100% obvious, but I think it still fits. People have been guessing at a South Seas expansion for a while, and this is exactly what it would be. Pandaria would be important, but there are other islands hidden away and established lore figures for us to fight.

I don't think this is a prank or joke at all, but it is completely possible it'll be a mobile game or something of that nature. I'd pay for an awesome Android game for sure. =)

Think of it this way. If Cataclysm isn't really a part of lore, then the next expansion doesn't have to be either. Plus, every expansion has been full of worst and worst events ending with a "Cataclysmic" one. It sounds about time that something a little better happens. And besides, Blizzard has been known to throw surprises at players, like every change in Cataclysm. Having said all that, it probably is a Troll, but in all honesty, I hope it isn't.

Cataclysm is part of the lore. Ragnaros has been saying "too soon..." for a long time in MC, and DeathWing has been working to destroy all life for a very long time, since the old gods started to corrupt him. Now the name Cataclysm might not have been telegraphed at all, but the lore is present.

Maybe this is a mobile game, released as an adjunct to the wow-app. Or just a side merch opportunity.

I was just talking about the names. TBC and WotLK are clear references to established lore. Cataclysm is not. That isn't to say it's not based on lore. As you say Deathwing has been around for a while as has Rag, Chog'all, Nef, Synestra, and Al'Akir.

In that section I was comparing the names of existing expansions to Mists of Pandara, to try and show why MoP is strange and in my opinion a likely troll or diversion.

Blizz Con is right around the corner and nothing else has been Trademarked. I would say given the time frame and with each passing day this Mists of Pandara is looking more and more like the title to the next expansion. Unless Blizz is infact doing something so secret that this was intended to throw us all off track.

For me the whole Pandarian idea sounds stupid. I never liked them and I don't think they fit well into WoW's world. It just keeps reminding me those asian free mmorpgs, where you can play some cute character. After demons, undeads, lich king and many things like that how can we possibly have anything cute and girly like pandas in this game?